STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Starting Wednesday, Staten Islanders and the world will be able to see new images of how the borough and other neighborhoods fared in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, thanks to Google.

The Internet giant exclusively told the Advance that Google's popular Street View has been updated with new images of storm-battered communities.

"This is kind of an important project for me, and I know it is for Google," former GOP Rep. Susan Molinari, Google vice president for government affairs, said in a conference call. "Google Maps has taken people to some pretty incredible places."

William Floyd, Google's public affairs manager for New York, said Google drove through storm-impacted communities for about a month at the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013 to gather the new images.

"Our hope was to capture accurate, updated imagery that would help people around the world better understand the extent of the damage and the importance of coming together as a community to aid in the recovery efforts," he said.

On the Island, Google drove through St. George, Stapleton and Midland Beach, and down the East Shore to Tottenville, for the most part staying east of Hylan Boulevard.

On the West Shore, Google drove from Charleston to Bloomfield, staying west of the West Shore Expressway, then drove down Richmond Terrace.

Google also drove around the perimeter of Manhattan, through parts of Brooklyn and Queens, including the Far Rockaways, areas of Long Island, as well as Yonkers and other Westchester County sites.

Floyd said the update was done "not just for historical purposes, but we also thought it was impactful information for the rest of the world to know how New York fared after this massive hurricane."

Google caused controversy when they drove through battered New Dorp Beach in January, with residents complaining that Street View would show their neighborhood as a wasteland that had been wiped off the map.

Google officials on Tuesday said they would photograph the battered areas again in the future in order to update the images and show further recovery from Sandy, but could not say exactly when that would happen.

As part of the Street View update, Ms. Molinari said Google is also providing images of the 9/11 memorial in Lower Manhattan that will allow viewers to zoom in on the names of the victims engraved on the twin reflecting pools.

Google is also offering new 360-degree views of Central Park's paths and trails on Street View.

Google is also partnering with the Historypin.com site to establish a photo archive of affected Island neighborhoods before, during and after the storm.

"The history of it is a history of resilience," said Ms. Molinari, "and that's what we want to reflect."

She added, "There's so much to be proud of, as a Staten Islander." ---Follow @siadvance on Twitter, join us on Facebook